There are many processes in business that require a delicate balancing act. And in marketing alone, the balancing act has a really potent emotional stake.

It might sound strange for those of you who still think that emotions don’t play much of a part in B2B sales and marketing. But at the very least, there’s a strong case for prioritizing satisfied customers over innovative marketing if you really want to keep generating sales leads in the long run.

Take an example from Twitter’s dilemma between satisfying its users and satisfying its shareholders. Now what does Twitter accomplish from the way it tries to deliver better user experience? It basically does what any other sensible business would do:

Listen to them.

Make the necessary changes and/or fixes to satisfy demand.

The truth about this approach however is that customers don’t really tell you everything you need to know on how to revolutionize your product. In fact, in the context of B2B products and services, your customers wouldn’t even care if something like lower costs would really improve the satisfaction of shareholders.

What’s more, you don’t necessarily need to be a public company to feel the draw of marketing something revolutionary.

It’s just that in order to carry out your revolutionary idea, you need to give the answers you still haven’t provided. The following are just a couple of sensible reasons to why satisfied customers come first when it comes to generating sales leads:

Satisfied customers talk – You may have already heard of referral marketing before. So obviously, you’ll know that satisfied customers are the key. Alternatively, it’s not good to have them promote a new product if you can’t even fix the problems of the one you previously sold.

They’re amiable to changes – If you want to try something new, who’s more likely to brush it off in case it doesn’t work out? Is it the customer you’ve already disappointed time and again? Or is it the one you’ve established strong rapport with and has reason to believe you reliable regardless of a few hiccups?

New ideas have to start somewhere – Finally, why struggle for a source of new ideas when satisfied customers can be a good springboard? Sure they may lack the foresight but if you want to start somewhere, the feedback from satisfied (or dissatisfied) customers is already a good place to look.

It’s still often the default strategy to try the latest marketing technique or tool in order to expand the market and increase production of sales leads. There’s nothing wrong with this except when you do it while blindly turning away from too many issues you still haven’t resolved.